November 23, 2009

Back from the weekend to a short week--ya gotta love it. Today one of the teachers did a Skype with a professor from Ohio and his class. The students asked questions and heard a lecture. I do believe that it is marvelous to be able to work this into our classroom experience. I see the classroom getting larger and more diverse with all of the tools available. Teachers and students have to get outside that damned box and not be afraid of the consequences. Wednesday is in-service so I am getting ready for that. It will deal with mostly Activinspire and interactive whiteboards. I am looking forward to the holiday to get some work done. I have to do some techie stuff on my own puter to make it better. I am migrating to Windows 7 on all of my stuff. I am looking forward to it. I must admit I liked Vista, but I think I am in the minority. The day was fairly uneventful and calming to some degree. Hey, cya tomorrow..............flick

November 19, 2008

I am going to being this blog with a little lesson in Roman mythology. Janus was the Roman god for gates, doors, etc. The district is partnering with PSU to help them obtain a NASA grant to build a satellite (JANUS-Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite) to look into the deepest regions of our universe to find gamma bursts and study them hoping to find objects that were the first to form after the so-called "Dark Ages." I have gathered two students who will, with a team of teachers and the asst. super, construct a video to show the involvement of the community in this project. The video will be 3-5 minutes in length, but this video will take many hours for work. The students are excited about the project, and it will involve a lot of our students in grades k-12. A nice challenge and project for all. I also met with some teachers about working with technology and have scheduled times to meet with them and go over a plan. I also had a request to do a tutorial on Vista. I have begun to deal with the basics and should finish next week. I also am pushing for more of our teachers to become Keystone Technology Integrators. I feel this is an important attribute to have and will enable our teachers to network more. Finally, so I can leave you all with a smattering of what I do, I have talked with a colleague about getting a coaching certification to broaden horizons and take the classes with me. Check back tomorrow all of you CFFFLICK readers, err I mean reader, for more in the life of CFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFlick!!!!! Stan Lee, eat your heart out.

February 26, 2008

This day has been one for the books. The district was on a two-hour delay so I decided to go in early and do some work. I was going through my email when the internet burped (this is my term for an anomaly), and the internet froze. I decided to do a restart, and when I did, my Vista was invalid. I tried everything and called some techies but to no avail. So I did something I did not want to do--CALL Microsoft. I have dealt with them before so I knew it would be an interesting time. One hour later--which included three calls, six different people, one automated system, and a partridge in a pear tree--the issue was resolved. I was thankful for their help, and the person I talked with was quite good. One other computer in the district experienced the same problem, and I was able to get the problem resolved quickly. Thank you Microsoft.

I then visited LA class and gave them a short presentation on Photo Story and Movie Maker. The teacher thought I was going to go through a detailed explanation of the software, but I gave them the information they needed to know to delve into the program and learn. I told them since I would not be there tomorrow, the teacher could Skype me, or I would be back Thursday. I thought it went well. The goal is discovery. The students will learn by doing. I feel this is important.

I also had a CFF meeting after school and went over my role as a coach, laptop procedures, the embedded learning class, and technical problems. I had the techie come in and talk about technical difficulties we are experiencing. I told them to exercise patience. I know getting the technology working, etc. can be frustrating because I dealt with that frustration in the morning with Vista. This is a new learning curve for all. I still must say I am impressed with the group. They are stepping outside their comfort zone and trying new concepts. i feel it is great. Oh, I gave the group the address for my blog because one of the math teachers could not understand how Photo Story, etc. could be used in math. We must all begin thinking outside the box

I know I have written a good amount today. Oh, lest I forget, I had another comment to my blog today from one of the students whom I presented to (notice the correct form of "whom"--sorry the grammarian will always be in me even though I would hate to grade my writing in this blog--I excuse that because this is my reflection). I will be attending the computer fair with some PV students tomorrow. I am hoping that the teacher will Skype me so her students can ask any questions. I know they are testing, though.